Singularity Universityhttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/singularity-university
en-usTue, 26 Sep 2017 16:33:45 -0400Tue, 26 Sep 2017 16:33:45 -0400The latest news on Singularity University from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/rob-nail-basic-income-could-help-job-automation-2016-6Robots are coming for our jobs, but one radical change could make that OKhttp://www.businessinsider.com/rob-nail-basic-income-could-help-job-automation-2016-6
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 15:29:09 -0400Danielle Muoio
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56e96bd7dd0895434a8b466b-1045/rtr3qll3.jpg" alt="robot android hire me sign" data-mce-source="Reuters/Mark Blinch" /></p><p>It's time to start preparing for a future where robots take most of our&nbsp;jobs.</p>
<p>Or so says Rob Nail, the co-founder of&nbsp;Velocity11 &mdash; a company that built&nbsp;automation equipment and robotics for cancer research and drug discovery&nbsp;before being acquired by laboratory manufacturing company Agilent.</p>
<p>"In a 20-year timeline, every physical task will be able to be taken over by robots," Nail said at&nbsp;Exponential Finance, a two-day conference on AI and robotics sponsored by CNBC and Silicon Valley think-tank Singularity University.</p>
<p>Nail is also CEO and associate founder of Singularity University.</p>
<p>Nail isn't&nbsp;the only one thinking job automation is right around the corner.&nbsp;President Barack Obama <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/obama-warns-congress-about-robot-job-takeover-2016-3" target="_blank">warned Congress that robots are going to begin taking over jobs</a> that pay less than $20 an hour, placing 62% of American jobs at risk. And a report put together by&nbsp;Citibank and the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford predicts some <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/us-cities-with-jobs-at-risk-of-automation-2016-3" target="_blank">US cities could have up to 50% of jobs taken over by robots</a>.</p>
<p>"We still live in a world where our economic system relies on everyone having a job. Maybe everyone doesn't need a job," Nail said at Exponential Finance. "If our politicians can't entertain a different version of the future, how are we going to get there?"</p>
<p>That's where basic income comes in.</p>
<h2>'We don't have a lot of time'</h2>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/57587209dd0895cc6f8b46c3-2400/robot-72.jpg" alt="robot" data-mce-source="Matt Cardy/Getty" /></p>
<p>Basic income is slowly inching its way into public consciousness.</p>
<p>Basic income is when&nbsp;individuals are given a set amount of&nbsp;income unconditionally. Period. Even if you're making money through some other means, like a job, you are guaranteed a set amount of money from the government each month with basic income.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.techinsider.io/kenya-will-see-the-worlds-largest-basic-income-experiment-2016-4" target="_blank">Kenya is launching the largest basic income experiment</a> later this year. And a<a href="http://www.techinsider.io/basic-income-lottery-winner-announced-2016-5" target="_blank"> man in Sarasota, Florida will get $1,250 a month</a> for an entire year from a nonprofit that's testing how basic income might work around the world.</p>
<p>Basic income experiments are also slated to start in the Netherlands, Finland, and Canada sometime in 2017.</p>
<p>Even&nbsp;Angus Deaton, the 2015 Nobel Prize winner for Economics, has <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/basic-income-gets-nobel-prize-winners-approval-2016-5" target="_blank">encouraged governments to use basic income grants</a>.</p>
<p>So if other countries are willing to test basic income, why not do the same in the United States?&nbsp;Nail has actually met with the US Department of Labor to convince them to try it out.</p>
<p>"There&rsquo;s definitely people in the Department of Labor&nbsp;who totally get it. And they're trying to be champions for change in a lot of ways and figure out new models and what to do," Nail told Tech Insider. "But then there&rsquo;s also the people who really will not even engage."</p>
<p>He said a lot of people, not just within the Department of Labor, don't understand how rapidly technology is advancing, from robotics to driverless cars.</p>
<p>"When the government&nbsp;will take two years to entertain the possibility of maybe possibly running an experiment, it&rsquo;s way too slow," he said. "I mean literally, I think it is a 20-year problem, and in terms of the pace of politics and social change that is the blink of an eye."</p>
<p>Nail said he's open to the idea that there are better ways to address the problem than basic income, but that it's important to start testing new economic systems.</p>
<p>"We don't have a lot of time," he said.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/herb-carnegie-mellon-develops-robot-butler-2016-6" >This is one of the most promising robot butlers we've ever seen</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rob-nail-basic-income-could-help-job-automation-2016-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/robots-could-replace-fast-food-workers-2016-5">Pizza Hut is using this robot to wait tables in Singapore</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/neil-jacobstein-were-close-to-building-an-ai-brain-2016-6We're inching closer to building an 'artificial brain' that can perform work 24/7http://www.businessinsider.com/neil-jacobstein-were-close-to-building-an-ai-brain-2016-6
Tue, 07 Jun 2016 12:44:16 -0400Danielle Muoio
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/56940958e6183ea4008b87d2-800/14414381350_ca3f84e8f8_o.jpg" alt="brain" data-mce-source="synapse on Flickr" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/125992663@N02/14414381350/in/photolist-nXKtoo-JCakm-y8ZH9n-6i1vfv-HuQG8-qDbwbV-9nwqUd-8GHvmm-dzN74C-68HeNX-5jFQMP-68xLrq-Cia48C-fyG71q-4UwSna-aZBubt-8AtdcS-Cc6SQU-95NQwj-8totWB-dmm23d-8xWZxS-b33XC2-6zc9GK-box9Jy-cV2cr-7ozE8f-A5fg1S-k7im-qLFBAT-bgpTAi-cVJN4-cUFXxq-r3XnZR-dwUQB-dKgNM-aFhdE5-C5HwSr-dYAJjD-qM3en6-gXGXqd-6F7N2v-kUNJK7-21FqDe-4PTLMq-8GHBuQ-ujYiAY-8VeL2z-8DygD1-eYKxyV" /></p><p>We're inching closer to building an artificial brain.</p>
<p>Or so says&nbsp;Neil Jacobstein, an AI expert who has consulted on projects for&nbsp;the U.S. military, GM, and Ford, at Exponential Finance &mdash; a two-day conference on AI and robotics sponsored by CNBC and Silicon Valley think-tank Singularity University.</p>
<p>"We are going to eventually understand how our brain works &mdash; we are going to reverse engineer the brain," Jacobstein, who is also co-chair of the AI and robotics track at Singularity University, said at the event.</p>
<p>Jacobstein&nbsp;said we are already making enough progress in our lifetime that we will be able to artifically replicate the neocortex &mdash; the part of mammal's brains that controls&nbsp;sensory perception, motor commands, spatial reasoning, conscious thought, and&nbsp;language in humans, according to <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/neocortex.htm" target="_blank">Science Daily</a>.</p>
<p>And Jacobstein said he doesn't think it will stop there.</p>
<p>"And we'll even be able to replicate and accelerate other parts of the brain as well, like the hippocampus," Jacobstein told Tech Insider after his presentation. "We will eventually build artificial brains that are bigger and faster than our own, and will be connected to our own in a lot of ways, like mobile technology."</p>
<p>The hippocampus is thought to be the center of emotion and memory.</p>
<p>Once there's an&nbsp;artificial brain, we'll be able to access it through means like mobile technology, giving us access to a "partner who can work seven days-a-week, 24 hours-a-day," he said.&nbsp;</p>
<p>But the creation of artificial brains will even progress to the point&nbsp;where it's integrated with our bodies, Jacobstein said.</p>
<p>His remarks sound similar to&nbsp;what Elon Musk said at&nbsp;Vox Media's Code Conference last week.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Musk mentioned a new technology he said companies should be working on called "neural lace," which would <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/elon-musk-on-neural-lace-2016-6" target="_blank">add a digital layer of intelligence</a> to our brains. It's a concept <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/flexible-circuit-has-been-injected-living-brains-180955525/?no-ist" target="_blank">nanotechnologists have been working on</a>, Business Insider's Jillian D'Onfro <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/elon-musk-on-neural-lace-2016-6" target="_blank">pointed out</a>.</p>
<p>Jacobstein said creating a neural lace like Musk described is "doable."</p>
<p>"It'll start out being enhancement for the elite, but like cell phones it'll eventually democratize in price so that people who want to be augmented will have access to that technology," he told Tech Insider.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brain-versus-artificial-intelligence-abilities-2016-2" >This one paragraph will make you appreciate your brain — and laugh at artificial intelligence</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/neil-jacobstein-were-close-to-building-an-ai-brain-2016-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/human-brain-perception-color-hues-2016-6">Your brain straight up can't handle this color</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/peter-diamandis-on-stone-soup-allegory-2015-2The classic allegory of 'stone soup' provides a lesson every entrepreneur should learnhttp://www.businessinsider.com/peter-diamandis-on-stone-soup-allegory-2015-2
Tue, 10 Feb 2015 10:29:13 -0500Richard Feloni
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/54d903466da811f30c0c4643-600-/stone-soup.jpg" border="0" alt="stone soup" width="600"></p><p><a href="http://www.diamandis.com/">Peter Diamandis</a> is a force in the high-tech world.</p>
<p>He's founded more than 15 technology companies, is the CEO of the <a href="http://www.xprize.org/">XPRIZE</a>, and is executive chairman of <a href="http://singularityu.org/">Singularity University</a>. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Google CEO Larry Page sit on his board.</p>
<p>Throughout his many ventures, he's never forgotten a simple but profound European fable he heard in college. The lesson from his interpretation of the "stone soup" tale is "so critically important" if you're an entrepreneur, <a href="http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/01/20/elon-musk-and-jeff-bezos/">he tells author Tim Ferriss in an episode of Ferriss' podcast</a>, whether you're in college and building your first company or 60 years old and building your 20th.</p>
<p>In his new book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1476709564/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1476709564&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thebusiinsi-20&amp;linkId=XFOBU5GLVOZU4CXE" target="_blank">Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World</a>," cowritten with <span>Steven Kotler, a&nbsp;</span>journalist and cofounder of the Flow Genome Project, Diamandis and Kotler tell their version of the allegory, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0689711034/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0689711034&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bibestbooks-20&amp;linkId=6Y75HTKGM4PO6QY5">as adapted from a children's book by Marcia Brown</a>.</p>
<p>Here's how the story goes:</p>
<p><em>In a medieval village, a farmer notices three <em>starving&nbsp;</em>soldiers approaching town and warns his neighbors to hide their food, for fear of losing all of it. The soldiers go door to door, denied food by everyone they ask. Suddenly, one of the soldiers gets an idea.</em></p>
<p><em>He knocks on a door, asking the villager if he and his friends could use her cauldron and firewood to make stone soup. The idea of soup made from stones is so strange and interesting that she lets the men into her home. One of the soldiers fetches some water from a well, along with some regular stones. </em></p>
<p><em>As the water begins to boil around the rocks, news spreads throughout the town that the soldiers they saw earlier were making soup made from stones. A group of intrigued villagers arrives at the woman's home to watch the soup bubble. After some time passes, an impatient onlooker asks the soldiers if he can help.</em></p>
<p><em>Some potatoes might actually add some flavor, a soldier suggests, and the villager goes to retrieve some potatoes. Not wanting to be left out, another villager asks if she can add something. A couple of carrots could work, a soldier says.</em></p>
<p><em>This continues, and soon the soup also contains poultry, barley, garlic, and leeks. One of the soldiers finally announces that the soup is done and shares the soup with everyone gathered.</em></p>
<p><em>The villagers are delighted at how delicious the soup tastes — who would have guessed that soup made from stones could come out so good?</em></p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/54d92f52eab8eaed663c6038-1112-833/peter-diamandis.jpg" border="0" alt="peter diamandis" width="480">Diamandis explains why the story provides a valuable lesson for entrepreneurs.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">The stones are, of course, your big ideas; the contributions of the villagers represent the capital, resources, and intellectual support offered by investors and strategic partners. Everyone who adds a small amount to your stone soup is in fact helping to make your dreams come true.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">What makes stone soup work is passion. People love passion. People love to contribute to passion. And you can't fake it.</p>
<p>So if you have a vision for a tremendously successful company, there's no way you'll be able to build it on your own. But your passion will attract those who can make even the grandest of ideas (soup made from stones) a reality.</p>
<p>The best type of passion, <a href="http://www.johnhagel.com/index.shtml">writes John Hagel III</a>, cofounder of Deloitte's Center for the Edge, is from "people who see a domain, but not the path. The fact that the path is not clearly defined is what excites them and motivates them," he writes. "It also makes them alert to a variety of inputs that can help them to better understand the domain and discover more promising paths."</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/shark-tank-kevin-olearys-best-advice-2015-2" >'Shark Tank' investor Kevin O'Leary shares the best advice he's ever received</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/peter-diamandis-on-stone-soup-allegory-2015-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-cuban-sleep-nap-strategy-2014-12">Here's How Much Mark Cuban Sleeps To Be On Top Of His Game</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/beaming-alien-messages-to-deep-space-2013-6You Can Now Send Personalized Messages Into Spacehttp://www.businessinsider.com/beaming-alien-messages-to-deep-space-2013-6
Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:23:00 -0400Miriam Kramer
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/51c07fe9ecad045822000016-480-/alien-graffiti-1.jpg" border="0" alt="alien graffiti" width="480" /></p><p>NEW YORK &mdash; In 18 years, messages beamed out into space from Earth by a new alien-messaging project Monday (June 17) will reach a distant star system known as Gliese 526.</p>
<p>Officials with the <a href="http://www.space.com/21528-alien-intelligence-messages-lone-signal.html">Lone Signal</a> project &mdash; a newly launched website designed to send user-written notices to any extraterrestrials who may receive them &mdash; hope that their messages might open the first dialogue between Earth and other intelligent life forms.</p>
<p>One of the company's first message beamed to the Gliese 526 system, located 17.6 light-years from Earth was sent by famous futurist Ray Kurzweil and reads: "Greetings to Gliese 526 from Singularity University. As you receive this, our computers have made us smarter, the better to understand you and the wisdom of the universe&hellip;" [<a href="http://www.technewsdaily.com/2535-top-space-alien-communications.html">10 Wildest Ways to Contact Aliens</a>]</p>
<p>"This signal, in 19 hours, will go farther than the <a href="http://www.space.com/11927-nasa-voyager-mission-facts-solar-system.html">Voyager spacecraft</a> has in 40 years," Jason Silva, the host of "Brain Games" on the National Geographic Channel said. He spoke to a crowd of fashion models, businessmen and a handful of scientists in downtown Manhattan honoring Lone Signal's launch on Monday.</p>
<p><strong>A chosen star system</strong></p>
<p>Scientists aren't sure if Lone Signal's chosen target of Gliese 526 (a red dwarf star) plays host to any potentially alien-populated <a href="http://www.space.com/17738-exoplanets.html">exoplanets</a>, but Lone Signal's chief science officer, Jacob Haqq-Misra thinks that it's possible the system harbors life. Gliese 526 is listed in the Catalog of Nearby Habitable Systems.</p>
<p>Lone Signal officials won't put limitations on the messages their users send into space. Although other Lone Signal participants can mark a particular message in the queue as "NSFW" (not safe for work), that doesn't necessarily mean that it won't be beamed toward Gliese 526.</p>
<p>Haqq-Misra doesn't think that this kind of free-range messaging is anymore dangerous than other transmissions being sent into the universe. Radar signals and electromagnetic currents from cell phones and other devices also carry information to far-off places.</p>
<p>Humanity's presence in the universe isn't secret, according to Haqq-Misra.</p>
<p>"We don't really know if [Lone Signal] is more likely to be bad at all," Haqq-Misra told SPACE.com. "It could be more likely to be good. So there's really almost no information as to whether or not we should send radio signals if you're really worried about <a href="http://www.space.com/10247-search-intelligent-life-universe.html">aliens responding</a> to them &hellip; Is Lone Signal dangerous? Are cell phones dangerous? Is radar dangerous? The answer is we don't know."</p>
<p><strong>A large antenna</strong></p>
<p>Lone Signal officials are using the Jamesburg Earth Station, a central California radio dish built in 1968, to beam the messages into outer space. The company holds a 30-year lease with the antenna.</p>
<p>Lone Signal is continuously sending two different beams of information toward the alien star. One beam carries the user-created messages while the other holds a binary code "hailing message" that carries information about Earth's place in the galaxy, the hydrogen atom and other information about the planet. The more powerful hailing message will point alien observers to the other stream of messages.</p>
<p>Other scientists and organizations have tried to send messages to possible intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe. One of the most powerful attempts is known as the "<a href="http://www.space.com/20984-arecibo-observatory.html">Arecibo message</a>" &mdash; a powerful radar signal sent to the globular star cluster M13 about 25,000 light-years away. [<a href="http://www.space.com/18964-the-nearest-stars-to-earth-infographic.html">The Nearest Stars to Earth (Infographic)</a>]</p>
<p>Lone Signal's beams are weaker than the Arecibo message sent from a powerful observatory in Puerto Rico, however, the company's messages are aimed at a much closer region of the universe, Haqq-Misra said.</p>
<p>"What's different about this from previous attempts at messaging to extra-terrestrials is past attempts have been pulses in time that have existed for just a matter of a few seconds or so and then they've ceased," Haqq-Misra said in a video introduction of the website. " &hellip; So if we really want to communicate something to a potential extra terrestrial listener, you have to transmit your message repeatedly and with a periodic signal and something that's going to allow a lot of time for them to tune in to the right station."</p>
<p><strong>A crowd-sourced message</strong></p>
<p>Any interested person can send his or her first alien communication for free, but extra missives come with a price tag. Another text communiqu&eacute; can be purchased for one "credit" and photo message cost three. Four credits can be purchased for $0.99, but high rolling space senders can buy 4,000 credits for $99.99.</p>
<p>People around the world can participate in the project in a variety of ways, according to Lone Signal officials:</p>
<ul>
<li>Share Beams/Track Beams: Once signed in, users can see how far their beam has traveled from Earth as well as share this information with others.</li>
<li>Dedicate Beams: Friends and family can dedicate a beam to loved ones</li>
<li>Explore: The Explore section gives beamers current data on the Lone Signal beam, who is sending messages, from where on Earth and other information.</li>
<li>Blog/Twitter &ndash; The Lone Signal science team and other contributors will post opinion articles and share science news and updates via social media.</li>
</ul>
<p>You can read more about the <a href="http://www.lonesignal.com/">Lone Signal project</a> and send your first alien communication from the company's website.</p>
<p><em>Follow Miriam Kramer on <a href="http://twitter.com/mirikramer">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/105854427591981272663/posts">Google+</a>. Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/spacedotcom">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/spacecom">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://plus.google.com/+SPACEcom/posts">Google+</a>. Original article on <a href="http://www.space.com/21601-alien-life-lone-signal-messages.html">SPACE.com</a>.</em></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.space.com/18790-habitable-exoplanets-catalog-photos.html">9 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.space.com/16287-poll-alien-life-extraterrestrials.html">Poll: Do You Believe in Aliens?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.space.com/21602-crowdsource-messsages-to-e-t-teaser-video.html">Crowdsource Messages To E.T.? | Teaser Video</a></li>
</ul><p><strong>Find Us On Facebook —&nbsp;<a href="http://www.facebook.com/BusinessInsiderScience" >Business Insider: Science</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/beaming-alien-messages-to-deep-space-2013-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-is-a-singularity-focused-company-2013-2How Startups Should Prepare For The Day When Technology Merges With Our Brains (AMZN)http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-is-a-singularity-focused-company-2013-2
Wed, 06 Feb 2013 12:12:00 -0500Megan Rose Dickey
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4fd63125eab8ea331a000005-400-300/david-rose400x300.jpg" border="0" alt="David S. Rose" /></p><p>By 2045, human beings will become a new species, half human, half machine.</p>
<p><span>Or so futurist Ray Kurzweil believes. He <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ray-kurzweil-singularity-future-2012-11">argues that by looking at the how tech is being developed that one day we will sort of merge with machines and society will reach a state of "technological singularity."</a> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">That's because, in part, computer processors double in speed every year while they get increasingly smaller. One day, we'll inject tiny computers into our bodies like medicine or add them to our brains to make us smarter.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">In the meantime, tech is always getting faster, cheaper, and spreading to more markets and industries. And this creates a lot of opportunity for startups, until the day when we all turn into cyborgs.<br /></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"Because of this totally changing nature of society and the community business world, any company designed to succeed in the 20th century almost by definition has to fail in the 21st century," David S. Rose, Associate Founder of Singularity U and founder at <a href="http://www.gust.com/">Gust</a>, tells Business Insider.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">So what does that mean for startups today?</span></p>
<p>In order to prepare for the singularity, Rose says, entrepreneurs need to figure out what technology will change and over how long, determine what effect that technology will have on a particular market, figure out what holes there will be to fill, and then actually build a business that will intercept that market hole when it comes around.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Amazon, Rose says, is the perfect example of a company that built a business with the singularity in mind. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos foresaw a world where there was no longer a need for physical bookstores, so he decided to build one online. Once Bezos nailed down the distribution side of books, he had to start thinking about ways that competitors could kill his business. Given that the cost of storage, networks, and other digital technologies were dropping, Bezos realized the potential in digital books. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Enter the Kindle.</p>
<p>Instead of waiting for a company like Apple to take him out, Bezos took himself out.</p>
<p>"He deliberately shot himself in the foot because he knew that if he didn't do it, someone else would," Rose says.</p>
<p>And someone eventually did. Apple announced in 2009 that it would be coming out with an iPad, and shortly after that, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-amazon-saved-the-kindle-2010-12?op=1">the tech industry proclaimed that the Kindle would die, but it didn't</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Even though Amazon doesn't release its exact number of Kindle sales, the company has continued to expand its Kindle lineup and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-we-doubled-kindle-sales-2012-11">announced in November that worldwide Kindle device sales over the holiday shopping weekend doubled</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Obviously, Amazon continues to face competition from the likes of Apple and Google. But&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Amazon is the perfect example of what a Singularity-focused business looks like, Rose says.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">In short, here's how startups should prepare for the Singularity moving forward:</span></p>
<ul>
<li>Figure out where the ball will be a few years down the road.</li>
<li>Determine how to hit that ball when it arrives.</li>
<li>Figure out what could potentially take you out, and then take yourself out.&nbsp;</li>
</ul><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ray-kurzweil-singularity-future-2012-11" >Here's What Futurist Ray Kurzweil Thinks Life Will Be Like In The Next 20 Years </a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-is-a-singularity-focused-company-2013-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/ray-kurzweil-singularity-future-2012-11Here's What Futurist Ray Kurzweil Thinks Life Will Be Like In The Next 20 Yearshttp://www.businessinsider.com/ray-kurzweil-singularity-future-2012-11
Sun, 18 Nov 2012 12:00:00 -0500Megan Rose Dickey
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/50a684df6bb3f75d51000004/ray-kurzweil.jpg" border="0" alt="ray kurzweil" /></p><p>With companies like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/google" class="hidden_link">Google</a> creating self-driving cars and augmented-reality glasses, futurist Ray Kurzweil's predictions are starting to sound much more realistic.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Kurzweil, cofounder of Singularity University, became famous for creating the first text-to-speech software. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/forbes" class="hidden_link">Forbes</a> <a href="http://www.forbes.com/asap/1998/0406/017_print.html">called him</a> "the ultimate thinking machine."</p>
<p>With technology advancing at an increasingly rapid rate, and researchers making serious headway into discovering the mysteries of the brain, it seems as if we'll all be reconstituted as a computer someday.</p>
<p>Here's a summary of what our future will be like, <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9231982/Kurzweil_Brains_will_extend_to_the_cloud">Kurzweil said</a>&nbsp;in a speech at the Demo conference in Silicon Valley this past week:</p>
<ul>
<li>Our brains will extend to the cloud, which will allow us to learn new things at any age.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>We will be able to selectively erase pieces of our memory.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>We'll be in augmented reality at all times.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>By 2029, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=dwgkbhDJKno">machines will be able to match the intelligence of humans</a>, and they'll be able to make us laugh and cry.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Around the 2030s, tiny "nanobots" able to repair and preserve our organs will keep us healthier and smarter.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>3D printing <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/ray-kurzweil-on-the-future-workforce/2012/11/15/702dea90-292a-11e2-bab2-eda299503684_story_1.html">will be even more common than it is today</a>, with public 3D printing stations for people to print out clothes, toys, and anything else.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Within 25 years, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304782404577490533504354976.html">computers will be the size of a blood cell</a> and we'll be able to connect it to the brain without the need for surgery.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Society will reach a state of "technological singularity" in 2045 where technology enables superhuman machine intelligences to emerge and people and machines become deeply integrated.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Don't Miss:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bii-mobile-insights-is-wearable-technology-the-future-of-mobile2-2012-11#ixzz2CPmzoeUW">BII MOBILE INSIGHTS: Is Wearable Technology The Future Of Mobile? &gt;</a></strong><span><br /></span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ray-kurzweil-singularity-future-2012-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/this-24-year-old-founder-wants-to-keep-a-billion-more-cars-off-the-road-2012-2This 24-Year-Old Founder Wants To Keep A Billion More Cars Off The Roadhttp://www.businessinsider.com/this-24-year-old-founder-wants-to-keep-a-billion-more-cars-off-the-road-2012-2
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:30:00 -0500Boonsri Dickinson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4f3d8e9ceab8ea0661000022/jessica-getaround.jpg" border="0" alt="Jessica Getaround" /></p><p>During the summer of 2009 at the Singularity University, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/google" class="hidden_link">Google</a> co-founder <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/larry-page" class="hidden_link">Larry Page</a> challenged a class of 40 students to pick an idea that could impact one billion people.</p>
<p>One of the program's students, Jessica Scorpio, thought if she could get enough people to share their cars with neighbors, she could reach one billion people around the world.</p>
<p>For it to work, Scorpio would need more than a business plan. People would have to start thinking differently, and they would have to value access to cars over ownership.</p>
<p>After finishing the program, the Canadian-born entrepreneur turned her idea into a company called <a href="http://www.getaround.com/">Getaround</a>. It's like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/airbnb" class="hidden_link">Airbnb</a> for cars; it allows owners to rent their vehicles to peers for short durations.</p>
<p>Last week, at a coffee shop near <a href="http://www.getaround.com/">Getaround's San Francisco office</a>, Scorpio told us about her life as an entrepreneur and how she plans to change the world.</p>
<p>Here's what we learned:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Scorpio thinks people should value accessing a car, overing owning it:</strong>&nbsp;"We feel transportation is a major problem. There is an over-population of cars.&nbsp;Cars sit idle 92 percent of the time. The total number of cars will double to two billion cars. There's no reason to put another billion cars on the road. It is our goal to make Getaround a global company."</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span><strong>People in the Getaround community become friends:</strong> "We noticed recently that a lot of people become repeat renters of a certain car or owner. We've had people become friends through the service. You find a few cars that you like and you like their owner and you just share with them."</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Larry Page gave her permission to launch at Google:</strong> "The first time we met him, we said, hey can launch Getaround at Google? He said, sure why not. We didn't do that because Google had a lot of transportation options, and we wanted to offer the service to a campus or city that needed it a lot more. So we started it in Mountain View, which had no car sharing options."</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span><span><strong>Owners make enough to cover their monthly car payments:</strong> "Owners, on average, make about $300 a month. We make sure they are getting rentals, so they keep sharing their car."</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span><span><span><strong>Renters save money too:</strong> About $8,000 a year.</span><span><br /></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span><span><span><strong>Why Getaround is better than <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/zipcar" class="hidden_link">Zipcar</a>:</strong> "One of the major differences between us and fleet-based car sharing like Zipcar is that we can operate all over a geography. So Zipcar really only plays in the densest areas like downtown San Francisco. We have members in North Bay, East Bay, and South Bay." <br /></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>It's her whole life: </strong>"<span>Honestly, 7 days a week every hour of the day, I am focused on making Getaround a successful business. I think work-life balance is a personal thing."</span></li>
</ul>
<p>Here's a full transcript of our conversation, lightly edited for clarity:</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/business-insider" class="hidden_link">Business Insider</a>: </strong>What's your relationship to cars?&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Jessica Scorpio</strong>: I've never owned a car. I love cars, but I've always set my life up in a way I can live car-free. Here, I get a car a few times a month for various tasks, business meetings, or for getting out of the city.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>BI: </strong>How did you start the company?</p>
<p><strong>JS:</strong>&nbsp;We did an alpha at Singularity University, which is where we came up with the idea.&nbsp;We did our beta in 2010. We launched officially at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/techcrunch" class="hidden_link">TechCrunch</a> Disrupt in May 2011.&nbsp;We are in three cities:&nbsp;San Diego, San Francisco, and Portland.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/4f3d8c40ecad04861200006c/getaround.jpg" border="0" alt="Getaround" /></p>
<p>We just got a $1.7 million grant to launch in Portland. The grant comes from the Federal Highway Administration.&nbsp;Portland should be really great. Portland is the birthplace of car sharing and the city has a lot of people who are into sustainable living.&nbsp;It's ingrained in their culture. A lot of people bike there, or if they own a car, they just use it on the weekend.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>BI: </strong>So you went to the Singularity University in the summer of 2009? What was that like?</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/4f3d8c42eab8eaec55000050/getaround.jpg" border="0" alt="Getaround" width="400" /></p>
<p><strong>JS: </strong>Larry Page was one of the corporate sponsors, as Google. Every idea we came up with, he was like, no, think bigger. He came up with a challenge to come up with an idea that could impact one billion people in the next 10 years.</p>
<p>When we were germinating our ideas, we always had that lens. Can this impact one billion people? Is this solving a major world problem?</p>
<p>We felt transportation is a major problem. There is an over-population of cars.&nbsp;Cars sit idle 92 percent of the time. It's going to double to two billion cars. There's no reason to put another billion cars on the road. It is our goal with Getaround to make it a global company.</p>
<p><strong>BI: </strong>What was it like getting advice from Larry Page?</p>
<p><span><strong>JS:</strong>&nbsp;</span>Page gave collaborative feedback. To be honest, Getaround was one of our first ideas and just really stuck. The first time we met him, we said, hey can launch Getaround at Google? He said, sure why not. We didn't do that because Google had a lot of transportation options, and we wanted to offer the service to a campus or city that needed it a lot more. So we started it in Mountain View, which had no car sharing options. Today, it's still very popular there.</p>
<p><strong>BI:</strong> How are you different than Zipcar?</p>
<p><span><strong>JS:</strong>&nbsp;<span>One of the major differences between us and fleet-based car sharing like Zipcar is that we can operate all over a geography. So Zipcar really only plays in the densest areas like downtown San Francisco. We have members in North Bay, East Bay, and South Bay.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p><span><span></span>Zipcar has created a big movement behind car sharing. People now understand that it's better to have access to a car if you can, rather than own one. Each shared car takes about 13 cars off the road. As a person accessing a car, you'll save about $8,000 a year.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>BI: </strong>How does sharing take cars off the road?</span></p>
<p><span><strong>JS:</strong> Basically, what happens is the owner's mindset changes when they decide to share it. They have the choice of sharing it or using it themselves. In general, when they have their own car, they do a lot of trips that are unnecessary. When they share, people will start batching trips and reduce the radius they go to and stay local.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>BI: </strong>What's the community like?&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>JS:</strong> &nbsp;We noticed recently that a lot of people become repeat renters of a certain car or owner. We've had people become friends through the service. You find a few cars that you like and you like their owner and you just share with them. It's real car sharing, you're not renting from a company. You're just sharing a car with another person.</p>
<p><strong>BI: </strong>How do you pick cities?</p>
<p><strong>JS:</strong> We work hard to make sure it is a great experience every time. We work to get the right amount of renters to owners, so that each owner can make a significant amount of money each month so they are incentivized to keep doing it.&nbsp;Owners, on average, make about $300 a month. We make sure they are getting rentals, so they keep sharing their car.</p>
<p><span>We have tens of thousands of members and we have 8,000 cars signed up across the country. Not all of those cars can actually share yet because we are not national. We go geography by geography. Those people are waiting until we activate their area.</span></p>
<p><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4f3d8c46eab8ea5e5300004d/getaround.jpg" border="0" alt="Getaround" width="400" /></span></p>
<p><strong>BI: </strong>Tell me about the technology.</p>
<p><span><strong>JS:</strong> We built our own hardware called the Getaround car kit and build the website and mobile app from scratch. </span></p>
<p><span>The car kit is really unique because it's easy to install. And it's way lower cost than typical fleet management technology. It tracks the car, so we can find it and so the renter knows where to pick it up. It also allows the renter to unlock the car really easily. Our biggest thing is making this a convenient transaction. If the owner wants to meet the renter for the first time, they can do that.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/4f3d8c2eeab8eaa955000036/getaround.jpg" border="0" alt="Getaround" width="400" /></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span>They'll get a text message or if they have the app, it pushes a notification to them saying 'Jessica wants to rent your car for two hours, you'll get $20.' They can respond based on if they are using their car and if they want to rent it out at that time. If I have the app, I can pick up the car with my smartphone</span></span></span></span>.<br /></span></p>
<p><strong>BI: </strong>What's your day like?</p>
<p><span><strong>JS:</strong> It's not to scare people off, but it's really intense. I have several things happening at every hour of the day. I usually get up between 8 am or 9 am, not that early. I'm not an early riser. I used to do 6 am yoga, but it wasn't fun so I don't do that anymore. I usually go to bed at 2 am to 3 am. </span></p>
<p><span>Honestly, 7 days a week every hour of the day, I am focused on making Getaround a successful business. I think work-life balance is a personal thing. I don't worry about work-life balance, but I do try and have a healthy life. So I try and get 7 hours of sleep. I try to walk or bike to work. I try and incorporate healthy food and vitamins.</span></p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/4f3d8c3eeab8ea396500001e/getaround.jpg" border="0" alt="Getaround" width="400" /></p>
<p><strong>BI: </strong>So you like being an entrepreneur?</p>
<p><span><strong>JS:</strong>&nbsp;I'm close to thinking nothing can phase me. Think of anything and it's probably happened working at Getaround. It loses its sex appeal pretty quickly. Luckily, I'm a hard worker. </span></p>
<p><span>At the beginning we had a co-founder burn out after like 30 days and the other one decided she wanted to go back to med school. Startups aren't for everyone.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>BI: </strong>Do you spend a lot of time with your co-founders?</p>
<p><strong>JS:&nbsp;</strong>Late at night, my co-founders and I go through our accomplishments and have a few celebratory drinks together.</p>
<p><span><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/4f3d8c24eab8ea0461000035/getaround.jpg" border="0" alt="Getaround" /><br /></span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/sam-zaid" class="hidden_link">Sam Zaid</a> was part of Singularity University. I was helping out with marketing and PR on Sam's other startup. We met Elliot that summer. Elliot is a really brilliant engineer. Elliot worked at Google for a number of years on the Street View team. Elliot helped build our first <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/iphone" class="hidden_link">iPhone</a> app. What I've learned is that you have to pick your people really wisely. We are around each other about 18 hours of the day. You have to get along and like each other a lot. </span></p>
<p><span>We are about 30 people now, mostly engineering because we do hardware, mobile, and web. We are starting to build out our marketing and operations side.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>BI:</strong> Why is this idea taking off? What's changed?</span></p>
<p><span><strong>JS:</strong> Now people see an idle asset as waste. People have made that realization and are trying to move their life into the cloud, but also make it very efficient. If you go to Europe for three weeks, you don't just leave your apartment empty and lock it up. Instead you pay for your trip by sharing your apartment on Airbnb. If your car is parked at work, you can pay for your parking by sharing it for two hours on Getaround or you can pay your whole car by sharing it a few days that month.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>BI:</strong> The economy played a role too, right?</span></p>
<p><span><strong>JS</strong>: I think the economic downturn was a big catalyst. When there's a new dip in the economy, there's an opportunity for new businesses to come up and get people thinking differently about stuff. </span></p>
<p><span>Five years ago, I don't think it would have been possible to do Getaround. The laws weren't there. The technology wasn't there. The social graph wasn't as far along as it is. </span></p>
<p><span>When money is tight, people are willing to do different things. These days, p</span>eople are being smarter about how they spend their money.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-24-year-old-founder-wants-to-keep-a-billion-more-cars-off-the-road-2012-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/tech-guy-tells-his-wife-he-wants-to-live-forever-2012-2Tech Guy Tells His Wife He Wants To Live Foreverhttp://www.businessinsider.com/tech-guy-tells-his-wife-he-wants-to-live-forever-2012-2
Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:10:04 -0500Boonsri Dickinson
<p><span></span>You may remember the topic of the Singularity being discussed in a <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2048299,00.html">Time magazine feature last year</a>, in which inventor Raymond Kurzweil said that 2045 is the year humans will merge with machines.</p>
<p><span>I was over at my friend's place this weekend. He works for a major tech company. He told his wife he believes in the Singularity and people he works with believes in the Singularity. He wants to live long enough until he can be uploaded to the machine.</span></p>
<p><span><span>She rolled her eyes and said that he always says that. </span></span></p>
<p>The Singularity is the closest thing to a&nbsp;tech person's religion. Some sources have called it a cult, a way for rich people to achieve immortality through technology. Those who believe in the Singularity think we humans will create machines that are smarter than humans -- and enter a post-human era.</p>
<p>In fact, <a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/google">Google</a> cofounder <a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/sergey-brin">Sergey Brin</a> sometimes talks about God when he talks about Google's direction. Brin previously told Technology Review that "the perfect search engine would be like the mind of God." His partner <a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/larry-page">Larry Page</a> helped launch&nbsp;<a href="http://singularityu.org/">Singularity University</a> in 2008, which was set up to teach disruptive technologies to future leaders. Also, early <a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/facebook">Facebook</a> investor <a href="http://vimeo.com/7339317">Peter Thiel</a> is an advisor for Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence.</p>
<p>Here's my translation of the conversation I overheard:</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vUAw6uurhAM"></iframe></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tech-guy-tells-his-wife-he-wants-to-live-forever-2012-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>